UC Berkeley's new Chancellor Nicholas Dirks prepares for his first semester at Cal

"Coming to Berkeley is like coming to Mecca," said the new leader, Nicholas Dirks, on Monday. "It's a premier institution of higher learning at every level."

The former Columbia University vice president officially assumed his post in June, moving into the century-old chancellor's mansion on campus with his wife, Janaki Bakhle. But the true weight of his new role begins now, as students flood back to the campus. Just days before the semester's start, Sproul Plaza was full of students and jammed with information booths for groups and causes.

On Monday, Dirks and his cabinet marked the semester's opening by touting the 25,000-student campus's graduation rate and generous financial aid for low-income and middle-class students, saying it provided the kind of value that President Barack Obama called for last week in speeches about college affordability and performance.

This year, Cal will add classes in computer science, math and other popular subjects; launch a $650,000 scholarship program for 32 science, math and technology undergraduates; offer more support to veterans and student-parents; and expand a department-based initiative, Berkeley Connect, to match undergraduates with graduate student mentors and students with similar intellectual interests, according to Dirks and other top administrators.

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Dirks was appointed to the post in November. Over Gov. Jerry Brown's objections, he was granted a $486,800 base salary and a nearly $9,000 annual car allowance, among other perks.

Bakhle, who taught history at Columbia University, was appointed as a history professor at Cal. Dirks and Bakhle have a ninth-grade son who attends an East Coast boarding school.

The campus's 10th chancellor inherits a much different financial situation than his predecessor, Robert Birgeneau, did in 2004: The campus gets less than 15 percent of its funding from the state, compared to 30 percent back then.

"It's been a striking difference," Dirks said.

A 5 percent increase in state funding this year follows years of relentless cuts to California's public colleges and universities. Berkeley's vice chancellor for administration and finance vowed to keep advocating for more state funding, saying it would take another 18 years of modest increases to reach the pre-recession funding level.

"It's in the state's interest to support what is probably the best public education system in the world," said the vice chancellor, John Wilton.

But Wilton added that the University of California "is too important to leave to the politicians," suggesting the campus will continue to look to the private sector and elsewhere to pay the bills. "We will do everything we can to make sure that is the case."